A new incarnation of The Naysayers will be releasing a self-titled album on June 25 via Coax Records
Drea Naysayer has a fiery intensity about her. An unwavering passion for her music shows in every word she says, and even more so in the ardent vocal delivery that’s her signature style as frontwoman of The Naysayers.
She’s full of excitement as she talks about her band’s new album, especially given that she’s decided to give it a vinyl release—her first record to come out in this format. The album, simply titled The Naysayers, will see an initial soft release June 25. The vinyl copies will be available in August. “I’m telling people it’s the release so nice I’m doing it twice,” she says with a laugh. “It’s nice because the summer here is so jam-packed, people will probably forget about the June release by the time August rolls around.” A vinyl release is expensive and Naysayer know this, but she says she is proud of enough of this album to throw all her money at it and give it the treatment it calls for. “I think the album is worth it,” she says. “I think the product deserves this. I haven’t really ever felt like making that kind of investment before and this feels like it needs to be honoured that wat because vinyl is just so righteous.”
Naysayer has been in this business a long time. She’s released 10 albums and toured nationally. Though she has a family and a life outside of music, she’s never let them interfere with each other, or felt she had to pick one over the other, despite any pressure she’s felt to do so and despite the difficulty of balancing the two. “There’s such a taboo around mothers in the music industry,” she says. “Trying to find creative time where you can indulge yourself and go into that creative space is very difficult.” The Naysayer’s album was recorded over nine months, with lots of people across the country operating remotely on the post-production aspects throughout the process. The songs were recorded in Whitehorse with Jim Holland at Green Needle Records.
Naysayer’s band is comprised of herself on guitar and vocals, and three other well-known local musicians—Paris Pick, Selina Heyliger-Hare and Tara Martin.“ This is far and away the best band I’ve ever had—technically, creatively, emotionally,” says Naysayer. “The collaboration and support have really taken my music to a whole new level. All the parts I hear in my head are really well-reflected on this record.”
Naysayer says the upcoming record shows her at her most authentic, making it the most successful musical experience she’s had—she’s not necessarily referring to commercial success, but more to inner success from knowing she is making exactly the music she wants to make. “I think as long as I’ve been doing this, I’ve just grown and grown and stuck to who I am,” she says.
Naysayer has also noticed an ongoing shift in the politics of music scenes and the music industry as a whole. She doesn’t feel she has to fight so hard to prove herself now as she once did. “There was no #metoo when I started out,” she says. “Having a vagina was seen as, like, a disability. If anything, the evolution of gender equity has driven me so much more. I’ve been saying this stuff for so long and now I finally have a place.”
Naysayer doesn’t have a secret as far as how she’s kept her passion and intensity. She attributes at least half of it to just who she is—a “high-strung, driven person.” She’s also very autobiographical in her music. To her, that can be an outlet for washing away her negative experiences and dealing with baggage in order to become the best version of herself possible. Naysayer knows her upcoming release is special. In a lot of ways, it feels to her like this is finally the album she’s always been aiming to make. “It all just feels like it’s exactly the right time and the right place,” she says. “I don’t like to use the word ‘deserved’ but I’m not totally surprised that all this feels so natural, just because I’ve never given up on the vision of having something like this.
”The Naysayers will be released initially on June 25 through Coax Records, an independent Canadian label. Check out the band’s Facebook page at facebook.com/dreanaysayer/ for summer show announcements and more details on the vinyl release.
